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Iroegbu Gives Essential Tips for Increasing Email Open Rates

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Kanu Iroegbu, a certified digital marketing consultant
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Are your email response rates dropping? Are your open rates getting worrisome? If you’re feeling discouraged, don’t be.

Kanu Iroegbu , certified digital marketing consultant sets good news podium teaching practical steps one can take to improve his open rates.

Here are ten tips to try:
1. Set the Right Expectations
Nothing will harm your email marketing open rates faster than failing to deliver what you promised. If you tell your blog readers that your email newsletter will provide behind-the-scenes info, then behind-the-scenes info better be what you give.
 This is what they’ll be expecting, and this is why they agreed to subscribe in the first place. Use your site’s Subscribe page to clearly explain what your newsletters offer. This way, the people who sign up will be interested in what you provide, and thus they’ll be more likely to click through to the emails that come.

2. Make Your Subject Line Short
Ideally, your email subject line should be short-easy enough to be read at a glance. Different email providers will display different lengths of text, so longer subject lines have a higher chance of being cut off. To ensure the greatest number of readers see your subject, aim to keep it under 50 characters or so.

3. Make Your Subject Line Intriguing
Assuming you have an engaged audience that is interested in what you have to say, the next best step to achieving better response rates is good subject lines.
The subject line is what appears in a recipient’s inbox, inviting him or her to click. It gets a few seconds of attention before being opened or deleted. So that’s why the best subject lines offer something of value, for minimum risk.
They give the recipient a sense that clicking through to the actual email newsletter will deliver something worthwhile.
What are some examples of intriguing newsletter titles? To put it simply, readers like subject lines that identify your brand, hint at the content inside, and have something to offer them.
For readers who want to stay updated with your company, for example, consider the following examples, written for the (fictional) company Good Deals: October Update on Good Deals; Good Deals October 2013 Newsletter; Good Deals Newsletter #15: October 2013 Edition;Good Deals Invites You to Our Grand Opening!; Upcoming Events at Good Deals; Good Deals Fall Updates; and 20% Off Good Deals Merchandise Now

In every example, the subject line tells the reader what the email is about, identifies the content as from Good Deals, and gives a reason to click.

4. Don’t Be Overly Promotional
According to Constant Contact, it’s a good idea to balance your newsletter content to be 90% educational and 10% promotional.
This means that, sure, you want to tell your audience about your new product or feature, but don’t let that be all you do.
Your newsletter should be more than a sales brochure-it should be an interesting resource. Ask yourself what you can give your readers beyond a catalog, and work that into your content.

5. Send It at the Best Time
You know what they say: “Timing is everything.” The timing of when you send your newsletter may affect how readers respond to it.
Test different schedules to see how your audience responds-while this may differ for various industries, according to the Whole Whale blog, there is evidence that “weekdays outperform weekends, with Tuesday-Thursdays performing the best.”

6. Be Honest about Email Content
Just like your Subscribe page should accurately describe your email content, so should your newsletter subject line.
If a reader clicks the “Big Company News October 2013” email only to find a story from last month, he or she might not click through the next month’s letter. Or worse, he or she might unsubscribe.

7. Avoid Spam Signals Like ALL CAPS and Exclamation Marks!!!
Everybody’s got spam radar these days. Who hasn’t received an email from an overseas prince asking for money?
Because of this, readers are more cynical-and this means they’re looking at your email newsletter with caution, at least the first time they see it. To help build credibility and keep yourself from looking like a spammer, avoid spam giveaways like writing in all capital letters or using multiple exclamation marks.

8. Avoid Salesy Language
Words like “exciting,” “leading,” and “ultimate” tend to sound salesy. Readers see them and think advertising.
So to keep from getting deleted, make your subject lines benefit-driven rather than sales-focused.

9. Consider a Negative Subject Line
“People will always work harder to keep something they have rather than try to gain something that they want,” says Sean Platt at Copyblogger.
 That’s why negative headlines can be so powerful-they alert your readers to potential problems they could protect themselves against. Here are a few examples: Five Reasons You Won’t Want to Miss This Weekend Sale; Good Deals Update: Are You Making These Shopping Mistakes?

4 Things You Might Be Missing on Our New Blog

10. Optimize for Mobile Devices
A large percentage of your readers will receive your email newsletter while they’re on their mobile devices.
Consider how your email newsletter will appear on a mobile device. Before sending it out to your entire list, send a test version to your own email. Check for display problems, broken links, and so on.


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E-Business

FG Mulls Fibre Optic Layout to Bridge Internet Gaps

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President Bola Tinubu said that his administration has initiated a project to install fibre optic cables across the country, aimed at enhancing the socio-economic development of Nigeria.

FG Mulls Fibre Optic Layout to Bridge Internet Gaps

His plans were contained in a speech he delivered at a joint session of the National Assembly in commemoration of Democracy Day on Thursday, June 12.

He said the fibre optic layout is part of other projects being embarked on.

“In addition, we have embarked on an ambitious project to lay fibre optic cables across the nation, a transformative step toward bridging the digital divide and fostering greater connectivity.

“This initiative promises not only to enhance the speed and reliability of internet access but also to revolutionise how businesses operate, how students learn, and how communities stay connected,” Tinubu stated.

He maintained that by extending this critical infrastructure, his government is empowering entrepreneurs, enabling digital education, and providing the tools for our youth to compete in a globalised world.

In a most recent report on Internet connectivity, The ICIR pointed out how Nigeria has faced setbacks in its deployment of fibre optic cables and needs a transformation.

The challenges revolve around vandalism, inadequate coordination between road construction and telecom infrastructure, and varying right-of-way (RoW) charges across states.

Among industry experts, these issues impact network outages, increase repair costs, and hinder broadband expansion efforts.

It has also further threatened the digital economy, leading to slower Internet speeds, dropped calls, and unreliable connectivity among others.


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African Startups Raised $345m in Funding in May

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African startups raised more than $345 million across 65 deals in May, more than double the amount raised in the same period of last year, according to a report by Briter, a research and business intelligence firm.

The report disclosed that both the number of deals and participating companies declined, confirming a growing trend of fewer companies raising funds in larger sizes.

It said fintech attracted the highest share of funding in May, accounting for 34 percent of the total, while cleantech followed closely, driven by a debt deal from Sun King. The company raised $80 million (in local currency) to expand clean energy access in Nigeria.

“Equity remains the primary instrument in terms of total value. There’s no doubt about it; in fact, equity deals with disclosed amounts captured more than half of the total funding volume in May.

“However, debt financing is increasingly proving its weight. Although it accounted for only 8 percent of all deals, it represented 32 percent of the total funding, highlighting the typically larger size of debt transactions. With the rise of specialised vehicles targeting early-stage businesses, debt is becoming an increasingly important part of Africa’s innovation funding landscape,” it said.

Briter’s report added that grants continued to play a vital role in early-stage support, especially in the education technology (EdTech) sector. The Mastercard Foundation led the pack in grant activity, funding a new cohort of EdTech innovators in Nigeria and Kenya. Each selected startup is set to receive $100,000 in grant funding, in addition to mentorship and business development support.

Multilaterals also made a strong showing in May, it said. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a World Bank Group member, issued a $179.6 million guarantee to CleanTech firm KOKO Networks. The support will help scale its clean energy solutions across Kenya.

“This deal not only demonstrates growing international confidence in African climate ventures but also signals a promising pathway for other asset-intensive startups in clean cooking, agriculture, and renewable energy,” the report said.

From a geographic perspective, Egypt emerged as the continent’s fundraising powerhouse for the month, contributing 51 percent of all funding raised. The country recorded 12 deals across equity, debt, and bond instruments. Notably, FinTech platform MNT-Halan raised $50 million through a bond issuance, further illustrating the diversification of capital-raising mechanisms in the region.

Outside Egypt, funding was distributed across Africa’s three other key markets, which are Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, with limited activity recorded in countries such as Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco, and Uganda, each registering between one and three deals.

In terms of exits, the African tech landscape continues to mature. Three companies—Baobab+, Qardy, and Shopa—were acquired in May, bringing the total number of exits this year to 22. This already surpasses last year’s count for the same period. Qardy was acquired by Catalyst Partners Middle East (CPME) in a disclosed deal valued at $23 million, the report added.

 


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Human Hacking: When Cyber Criminals Target You

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By Nancy Werteen

When you get anti-hacking advice, you’ve probably heard “Don’t use a simple password,” or “Don’t plug in that USB you found on the ground.”

Human Hacking: When Cyber Criminals Target You

But there’s one form of hacking that doesn’t always require a computer, and it costs businesses about 4.88 million dollars a year.

Modern hackers aren’t trying to get into your computer; they’re trying to get into you.

“They’ll try to learn about you a little bit, and they’ll try to use that information against you to try to get you to complete some action, maybe to send somebody some money,” said Kevin Moran, PhD, Assistant Professor of Computer Science, Cyber Security and Privacy Cluster, University of Central Florida.

IBM calls this human hacking, because it exploits human error instead of system error.

“With people just being busy and maybe not very carefully checking some of the emails or the phone calls that they get, can be something unfortunately that people can fall victim to,” said Moran.

Also known as social engineering, this often takes the form of phishing, where the hacker tries to “fish” the information out of you by impersonating family, friends, or even your bank.

There’s also baiting, where the hacker baits you with something of value. Remember the Nigerian prince scam?

That’s a famous example of baiting. There’s also pretexting, where the hacker will claim the victim has already been hacked, and that the hacker can fix it if you just send over your passwords. So, what can you do?

“Just as a rule of thumb, instead of clicking on links and emails, just go to the website yourself. And that will prevent, a lot of these types of attacks from happening,” explained Moran.

Phishing can take many forms.

Spear phishing targets people with access to confidential information, often to get access into an entire business, and whale phishing targets CEOs or political figures.

Search engine phishing is when hackers create fake websites promising services or goods you’ll never receive.

Angler phishing is when hackers create fake social media accounts impersonating famous people or companies.

Finally, vishing and smishing is phishing done through phone calls and texts respectively.

 

 

 

 

 


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